The new companion
by Erwidze
Summary: Goblin slayer didn't care about Gods. He didn't know about dragons and other myths and legends. No one, especially him, could see him getting involved in things like these, but it looks like Fate has a different plan. A new born dragon and a goblin-slaying adventurer, what could possibly tie them together?


It was supposed to be perfect. Something to be remembered for ages to come. Months of preparation and scheming led to this exact moment. It wasn't the usual boring stuff of saving a village or city or defeating some bad guys. No, it was something new, something refreshing, something ALL the gods were eager to see. Everyone in the Pantheon was excited - the Gods of light were thinking of ways to help and possible paths of the and Gods of Dark were thinking of ways to corrupt, of challenges and threats to come to the adventurers.

It was the making of the new path for people of this world to become someone who could control the creature of the wild to their will and command them to do their bidding – the Beastmaster.

All pieces were in their places. Everything led to this moment The Elder dragon, carrying her last egg from the unexpected fire in the forest it inhabited, was shot by sudden lightning through the wing and fell in deep canyon like place which then was closed by sudden earthquake, leaving only a small entrance which conveniently could let a human like people inside through the caverns. The task of exploring these caverns was given to a group of young Obsidian ranked adventurers – few warriors and ranged fighters, mage and a priest – the usual.

In their exploration they would find a strange entrance and face the dragon, whose health was really low due to strange weather occurrence, fall from height and bombardment of heavy rocks which fell on it due to earthquake through regardless of all that it was still a deadly foe. It would be a glorious battle which would test every member of party and their teamwork. And after a long, tiring battle they would find themselves with not only dragon materials, from which legendary weapons and armor were made of, but an egg of dragon – a legendary creature – and soon to be a companion. All that with addition of fame, weaponry and baby dragon would start a legend – a legend through what will a new class be born – something to break a monotony of everyday pieces on board in the game of Gods.

It was supposed to be legendary, but the only way it would apply to all that happened could be summarized in two words – a Legendary …. failure.

At the start nothing was perfect – the group got their quest, made preparations and went ahead – everything went according to plan – but around midway they were ambushed by some insignificant trash mobs – it wasn't planned, just a stroke of luck they were. No one was worried. "It's just some wolves, everyone can deal with what, what could go wrong?" Oh how wrong they were – in a stroke of luck unseen from action unguided by Dark gods the creatures dealt damage to the group without being hit even once. That damage, small as it was, accumulated to a more serious degree – nothing super major to make them turn back and run – still, it could make a battle with dragon much more challenging but it could be fixed by another convenient earthquake and few boulders conveniently damaging the dragon inside the cave, but it still put some Gods on edge as they helped the brave heroes with a few minor buffs – or tried to help but as it seemed that dice didn't want to help them and rolled only the low numbers – more and more Gods tried to help – more and more times they rolled low. Even the Dark Gods tried to help them – their schemes relied on them at least arriving to the cave – some tried to control the creatures and roll for them – only to roll natural 20 on each and every turn – as if the Fate itself was playing jokes on them. In the end all their attempts failed and all they could do was look upon a path where four young adventurers – four to-be legends - fell prey to a pack of simple wolves.

The awkward silence between the Gods was palpable, none of them could utter even a word in shock, but worse of all was reaction of Truth – the creator of the idea and the one that spent so much time planning all that. Few second passed and shock was lifted. Some sadden sighs could be heard from the Gods of Light, a brave soul snorted and laughed, some Gods started talking, joking and generally stopped paying attention – their minds wandering to their other work and pieces only to be interrupted by the sudden motion from the Truth, whose eyes were burning with hope.

Yes! _Yes_! It doesn't have to end here! Perhaps there is another party, it doesn't have to be them – maybe someone else – anyone, he needs anyone, a group of four, five, two or even one – he could make it work! Of course, of course! He wouldn't see his plans ruined by the death of one party – just make something near the cavern to be of interest – another party will find the corpses and make sure to complete the quest! Might as well, right? Their other objective would be near the cave – what adventurer would miss this? Just make some dreams of treasures untold, and they will rush in like moth to the lamp. Y-Yes, yes! All could be saved, and he knew just the thin- only to have his train of thought be interrupted by the flames from city heroes were from.

"W-what? What is this?" - Truth enhanced the vision of army assaulting the city – the army of Wrath - another God of Darkness.

"Wrath... What. Is THIS?" He said pointing at the army of monsters and savages fighting with the heroes on the gates.

"Ugh.. I didn't do anything" Said Wraith waving his hands in a sigh of surrender - "I didn't command them to do all that, I all but forgot about them for a while."

"So, you mean to say they decided to attack the city the Heroes were from right now in this exact moment – all by themselves?"

"Y-Yeah? I guess?"

Truth could only sign and put hands around his head for some time before removing them and standing up.

"You know what? Fuck this!" he said and left the table accompanied by the laugh of few sitting there.

As the moment passed other gods decided to go on their own business and the table soon became abandoned – as were the pieces and miniatures on it. Elder dragon, powerful but trapped under the rubble, was remembered by the few Gods for a moment – but ultimately put aside in their minds – its entrapment was a strong one – not worth the trouble of spending energy to free it – even free it couldn't do much without the ability to fly.

And so, the supposed legendary adventure was soon all but faint memory. The Town was saved but with so many lives lost and so much destruction from the army of Dark gods it soon became abandoned – no one decided it was of any use to think of quests and adventurers lost as there were too many to count.

Mounts passed and dragon died, finished by bleeding and hunger and its egg without any heat from mother's body fell into hibernation.

Years passed. Decades passed. Gods were doing godly things, Beastmaster failure all but forgotten, new heroes were born and raised, new settlements were built - some were built on foundation of ruins, like The Frontier. Villages were created, some soon to be destroyed by demons, orcs or something else. Somewhere in the mountains a creature found a strange convenient for tall people entrance and stepped inside, only to see a giant skeleton and rocks around and then a sound was made - the first one since the death of a dragon.

"G-Gobb?.."

**…**

A primitive axe struck a goblin spearman in the head.

"Four." Said an armored man while picking up a spear from the dead goblin's grip. Moment later another goblin found same spear flying towards his head.

"Five."

It was like a breath of fresh air – as fresh as air from the cave filled with smell of blood and goblin guts could be.

"Six"

Usually Goblin Slayer doesn't find any pleasure in slaying goblins but today was different. He was alone – his party got ill all of the sudden and that meant one thing – there was no annoying Longears to stop him killing goblins in a way he wanted.

"Seven."

He doesn't hate her_ per se_, but every time he wanted to use any of his plans – she made a fuss and complained._ "That's not how an adventure should go!"_ Each and _every_ time. GS was stoic – nothing really bothered him nowadays – not glances from other heroes or citizens, not their whispering and complaining about his rank – but Elf was always there – always complaining.

"Ten"

You would think that kind of childishness would go away after seeing her kind tortured by goblins and slaying them later one by one while they slept on their first quest. You would think she would become more serious and perhaps a bit cold _but no_, it was the exact opposite – each and every action there seemingly forgotten, replaced by the strange wish to have some fun. Perhaps she coped that way? Maybe. You could say that in a very roundabout way she strengthens him – each time he would come up with something new that wasn't in her list of things "NOT TO DO ON AN ADVENTURE".

"Fifteen."

Still, sometimes it would have been so much easier to use the firebombs or his other "unheroic" methods as one day that mindset of hers could lead to a disaster.

A Knife impacted the green hide. "Sixteen."

GS also wasn't stupid nor inattentive – not once he overheard Priestess and others talking about his mental health, how he needs to have fun and relax – but that wasn't the right way.

"Twenty."

His thoughts about a party stopped in their tracks as he came to entrance which probably led to their main hall of sorts. Villagers said that no females were stolen but GS still tried to be cautious as they could have caught passerby or someone from another village. That meant that without confirmation he couldn't use the firebomb so instead he came up with another plan.

He tossed the lit torch inside the cavern and it landed near the giant pile of bones and stone where the shaman was sitting. It lit the cavern enough for GS to see the cavern at full – it was a big half sphere space with a big pile of bones and stone in the center on which the shaman was sitting and about 7 goblins all around the cave. Seeing no prisoners, he took a flask of oil in his hip and threw at the torch. As the bottle touched the open flame it blew up and covered the pile, stones and nearby floor in flaming oil which now was burning the shaman and an unfortunate goblin standing nearby. Moving quickly GS dispatched the ones near him, throwing a few into the open flame.

"Twenty five."

One by one he was slaughtering goblins, but then he noticed a few more goblins which were blocked from his sight at the start by the pile. The fire, which now was the only light source in the room, was quickly dissipating, so he threw another flask to the flame and continued his killing spree, not paying attention to the strange stone in the pile, which started to crack and slightly move.

"Twenty eight."

As the battle ended he took another unused torch and went to the remaining flames to lit it. Only then he paid attention to the strange noises from the improvised fire.

Was it the shaman? He should have burned down. Did he have some kind of protection spell? GS quickly lit the torch and prepared for a fight, only to see not a goblin – but a strange creature. "A lizard?" It certainly looked like one only much bigger. It quickly walked from dying flames, seemingly unbothered by the high temperature and looked at him. Silence took place as GS and a Strange Big Lizard engaged in staring contest. As the GS was thinking what to do with it, the creature's stare fell to the corpse of the goblin near and started eating it.

"Hmm..."

Goblin Slayer carefully went near the creature and crouched to see it closely. It was about the size of the big cat and seemed to have wings. Its scales looked like a metal.

"Interesting..."

The Lizard seemed to realize that he was close but didn't seem to be scared, as GS would predict, and only stared at warrior with curiosity.

Not knowing what to do, GS extended his hand towards the lizard who in turn moved its head towards it and sniffed it. Remembering the interaction between the children and animals in the city, GS tried to mimic it and pet the creature. The creature froze and so did GS. "Did I do something wrong? Perhaps I should _ha-"_ His train of thought was stopped then Lizard seemed to ram its head into his palm with purring like noises.

"Drrr... Drrrr..." Seeing it as success GS continued to lightly pet the strange creature.

"_Very_ interesting."

**Thanks for reading all that. I have a few ideas for a future chapters, like the reaction of the guild and party (with everyone freaking out and GS not understanding all the fuss – it is just a lizard), GS finding even more cool animals and such. I also have another oneshot in mind where our favorite slater leaves the guild and hunts goblin without quests.  
**


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